'Augmented reality' for collector pins? Yes, and more out now from FanSets—aka my old buddy Dan Madsen!

Some of just the first offerings from Fan Sets

It's the 50th! Everyone is looking for a new way to show and celebrate their Trekness... and now here's a cutting-edge spin on an old favorite from none other than my buddy and colleague Dan Madsen.

His new company FanSets just launched with Dan, founder of the former longtime Official Star Trek Fan Club and my boss-publisher for the late great Communicator mag, and two partners in a great new enterprise: combining official and beloved 2-inch Star Trek character and ship pens in a bunch of new ideas for wearing and display—including a blow-your-mind way to see and enjoy pins in a whole new way!

Wait, what? you're saying by now:  Pins are kinda retro, old-school —and yet still fun for when you can’t cosplay and just want to wear a favorite ship or character. But what's cutting-edge about a pin?

My annual catch-up with Dan at San Diego Comic-Con

"It’s the Augmented Reality pins," Dan told me in an exclusive chat. "We are working with a company out of Indonesia that is one of the top three Augmented Reality companies in the world. Essentially, what this is, is—let’s take the Enterprise pin: You'll be able to take an app that we’ll provide and, when you see that pin on anyone, hold your smartphone or your tablet up to it for a second–and suddenly the Enterprise will come alive, out of the pin: it will literally be 3-D and move—shoot off into warp drive, with music and sound effects."
 
Or, say, point your app'd smartphone at one or more certain characters on a transporter pad and get a 3-D holographic beam-out effect, with voices and music. Or stand your Enterprise pin next to your buddy with her Klingon ship, and point again:  "The Enterprise will come out of the pin, the Klingon will come out of the pin, and they’ll have a space battle right there on your phone! Firing back and forth at each other."

Dan says he and FanSet partners Lew Halboth (28 years in the video game industry) and John Garrison(his industrial background backed by comics fandom) expect to have the first AR pin out by Christmas, and to demo the system for fans at "STLV"—Creation Vegas Khaann. But long before then, there are lots of other lines coming—and an ever-growing batch of the basic pins are up at the FanSets.com website right now."The fun thing is, not only can you wear them, you can display them," Dan says. "If you decide today you feel like wearing Sisko, then you put Sisko on and wear him— then you come home and you put him back in your display."

They have "tons" of these pins planned—from basic character and ship pins by the "hundreds" of styles, where minor characters like M'Ress are just the start (she's in the first 50). "She's one of the coolest pins, to me," Dan says. "That’s just an example of how we’re going into more of the minor characters that you don’t see turning up on most merchandise, if at all."

But you can also look for everything from pins with moveable parts, to autograph pins (to get and wear your favorite actor's inking), to "alphabet" pins sporting a notable of that letter (S with a Spock!) ... to the AR pins and app. The autograph pins are slightly larger, but "not so heavy they weigh down your jacket!"—and take any pen used for signing regular photos.

"By Vegas in August, we will probably have 50-70 different ships and characters, and probably have some of the first autograph pins there for the actors who are appearing," Dan says. He's especially proud of the vibrant colors and the enameling on even the basic pins: "The website does not do these colors justice! The little Chakotay pin—it's only two inches tall, but you can see in detail the little tattoo on his forehead."

"And by the end of the year we're going to be launching a collector’s club, so that people can not only get exclusive pins but get access to order first on our limited- edition pins—like a run of 1701 pins, and once they’re gone, they’re gone."

Look for a special FanSets display case coming, too. "The fun thing is, not only can you wear them, you can display them," he notes. "If you decide today you feel like wearing, you know, Sisko, then you put Sisko on and wear him— then you come home and you put him back in your display." You can collect them all, he adds—or maybe just the original series. Or Next Generation or Voyager, or just the ships, or the captains...and so on.

Dan was most enthused and insistent that his partners all came together with a business plan that took over three years to design and capitalize and, in a word, is not flimsy. They fully intend to "pump out" hundreds of pins, go deep into the Star Trek bench of characters, ships, and gear—and not be dependent on early sales to make the full line come to pass, including the high-end AR pins. "No, we're not launching with just a bare-bones line—that’s the reason it’s taken so long," he says. "None of us wanted to get involved if it was gonna be hanging by a thread, at first. We wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row, so as to have the biggest launch and rollout we could."

"We’re gonna have a huge collection in Vegas—our very first appearance at a convention, " he adds. "We hope to have an augmented reality demonstration there to show, and we’ll have a ton of pins there to buy. And at Mission New York a month later, and at Destination Star Trek Europe." The license includes many countries globally and covers all Prime Trek, with the Kelvin Timeline movies about to be added and the new Bryan Fuller TV Trek series dealt for as soon as possible.
 
FanSets also has a license for the same ideas with Harry Potter and DC Comics, and will be adding more franchises soon. "But I wanted to start with Star Trek because that’s where I started, with the Official Fan Club," Dan says, "and it’s still the closest to my heart. And to get them launched in time for the 50^th anniversary!"

Timing did not allow FanSets to get a booth at massive San Diego Comic-Con—but Dan says they'll have a presence with two exclusives, available from either the Stylin' Online at the Official Star Trek booth or at the Stan Lee Comikazi booths at SDCC. One of the pins is a tribute to Nimoy, Doohan and Kelley on the transporter pad, the other is an Enterprise inscribed with the SDCC 2016 line—and both to be sold for that weekend only for $12.95.

Otherwise, the regular character pins sell for $8.95, the ships are $12.95, and the Augmented-Reality pins are $12.95 as well. The line of the moveable-part and larger autograph pins are not set yet, but everything the company sells will be under $20.

And, he proudly adds, no consultants were used in the choosing of these pins.

"We’re all Star Trek fans—we sat down and thought, who should we do?" Dan recalls. "We have to do the main guys, but once past that—who are the ones we don’t see very often that we ought to do? We don’t have to sell a million of each one—we’re selling to collectors, so we can do a smaller run and do pins that appeal to a smaller number."

Sure, that's great talk, I tell him—but have you thought about a Tellarite?

Dan knows me well: “I am absolutely proud to tell you that we have a Tellarite!"

I can't wait to see it.



FanSets also has a Facebook page.

Red Shirt Diaries: Ashley, Jason—and who's Bones?!

The truth HAS been out there for some time, but it hit home today: The Red Shirt Diaries is the cutest, bestest and yet heart-felt little Trek parody webseries out there: The fans are flocking, even before last year's "Season 2" Indiegogo that upped the bar this year … the buzz is growing… and now—yes, I got to don McCoy's dark hair and blue tunic once again!

THANK YOU, ASHLEY AND JASON.

That's Ashley V. Robinson and Jason Inman, of course, who not only announced their engagement recently but also have quite an up-and-coming profile—doing RSD as well as their awesome Geek History Lesson podcast/ YouTube, Jason's  DC All Access webshow co-hosting, and Ashley's burgeoning acting career (listen to this clip!). And of course, they first came on Trekland's STV radar a year ago during that Indiegogo drive (and yes, I still need to post the rest of the vidchat). 

This nighttime fun on Hollywood Boulevard came last Sept. 11 as they held a mini-season premiere screening at IO Club and Theatre for crew, cast and local backers, but I held off the posting until our McCoy spoiler was closer…which, of course, with "Operation: Annihilate!" meant late in the "season." Never fear—you can catch their "finale", RSD's angle on "Amok Time," on Monday next—and of course gotta catch 'em all on YouTube or via the RSD site. (At 5 minutes each, tisn't difficult).

Quite aside from moi's return to solid/dotted-rank, this is quite a landmark episode for Ashley's Ensign, er, Lieutenant Williams as well—and remarkably a big dose of pathos in what is admittedly a winky fun vibe of a series. And how many past World of Williams references can you catch? 

WILL there be a Season 3? WILL their Mirror Universe dream come true? Will Ashley's crack about Commodore Decker bear fruit? It's up to you guys and what they call "online analytics," of course—so, and she says, "SHARE AND LIKE! SHARE AND LIKE!"

STV: David Goodman edits Kirk's bio! —Part 1

Didn't get all the best Trek goodies on your list for the holidays?

If you didn't already grab a copy of David Goodman's The Autobiography of James T. Kirk from Titan Books, maybe now's the time! Available everywhere live and online, it's David's second foray into non-fiction gap-filling, after FEDERATION: The First 150 Years in 2012. (And you know how I am about Trek gap-filling.)

In fact, I grabbed David once again in the off-hours at his office as Family Guy writer-producer to talk about the tome in a new vidchat: his choices, the process, and even fan feedback after Federation. 

WARNING: Loaded with all kinds of sidelong and unexplained Trek references, of course.

SECOND WARNING: Watch for the remainder of this chat in follow-ups in coming days!


FYI: Portal 47 members got to view this video up to 72 hours early before it went public—one feature of their deep-dive Trekland access.

New 'On Speaker': The '95 VGR voices of 'Caretaker'!

If it's August and Vegas Khhaaann is past, that can only mean one thing: 

The latest TREKLAND: On Speaker remastered audio collection from my archives... is now out!  Fresh from its annual STLV debut,  I'm very proud of my latest deep-dive Trek interviews on collectible CD.

For our fourth annual volume, we continue marking anniversaries—and for 2015 that means the 20th birthday of Voyager's premiere, and thus the title: "Taking Care of 'Caretaker'."

On this disk you'll get the On Speaker debuts of the one and only Jeri Taylor (lower right), the co-creator, exec producer and mentor-creator of the Kathryn Janeway character... as well as Trek's other production designer and leader of 13 seasons of Trek art departments—the Emmy-winning Richard James (top right), who got to do this one from scratch. There's also segments from  VFX producer Dan Curry (lower left) and the late, great TV Trek director Rick Kolbe, who reveals why he got exec producer Rick Berman's hiring call for "Caretaker" in the middle of the night… in a Georgia swamp.

As always, you get the three-panel liner notes, my original photography, an audio introduction and intros to each segment, a maxed-out 1:20 of actual voices …and the option of an autograph on the cover panel.  

And, as always, it's all graced by the audio and art design talents of my friend and trek.fm podcast network founder-czar Chris Jones (or @cbryanjones for all you Tweetsters).

Check out the page, and even get a deal on prior-volume CDs in multiples—all of which I'll likewise be happy to sign.  Vol. 1 is sold out, but it's still on my to-do list to get up as an iTunes download and get started that library. Each CD after Vol. 1 will be limited to 100 disks, then kept up for digital downloading as well. 

I hope you enjoy our latest in this series of incredible e audio snapshots in time—fresh in the day, and yet fresh today too! 

STV: Mimi Craven tells tales of the Voyager Vaadwaur

After 18 years, you bet that a lot of faces have appeared across the "modern" Star Trek TV incarnation, not to mention the whole 50+ year saga. By now, even those with a one-off guest role, especially with a long credit list elsewhere behind it, get sought out by fans. It's all part of the sparkling Trek tapestry. 

One of those gems is Mimi Craven—she of many fan-favorite roles over the years even outside of Trek. At a recent signing show in Burbank, I chatted with her about her unusual turn on Voyager as the ill-fated female Vaadwaur, Jisa, in "Dragon's Teeth."

The Vaadwaur were designed to be a new culture with much backstory, intended to be a leading face in the last year of the show and launched with a two-parter—but those plans went for naught. 

Mimi wore it proudly, though, and has some great moments to share as she was the test case for the makeup, even before shooting her scenes. Find her at a con and she can add insider stories from the original Nightmare on Elm Street, and many more. Good stuff! 

Yo: My TV Academy piece on 'Astronaut Wives Club'!

It's on my website bio... and any of you Enterprise in Space supporters have heard me say it as well: I was a NASA kid long before I was even a Trek kid. I know a lot of you guys-n-gals are big space nuts, too—it's the mutual Trek/NASA reality that's always been around.

I was also a legit and trained journalist in the lay world before Trekland ever stamped my passport full-time.

Why is why I'm doubly proud of an interview piece of mine just published, and want to share. And it's not even Trek.

It was commissioned as an original feature for the sleek website of the Television Academy (the Emmy folks) and is not a reprint from their magazine—the first of more to come in a new site section.

And, two: Did I mention it's not Star Trek? I talk with Stephanie Savage—the adapter and show-runner of this summer's cool ABC mini-series The Astronaut Wives Club, taken from Lily Kossel's living history book of the same name—in what amount to the female mirror of The Right Stuff: the saga of the original Mercury Seven astronauts' wives.I doubt that rarely will these new web chats of mine for the Academy site be so selfishly space / sci-fi oritented—but what a way to start! If you haven't been watching TAWC, it truly is a hoot, an eye-opener, and the period production is right on—and you can catch up on the episodes in full on abc.go.com.

Meanwhile, having a connection to today's Hollywood output, in productions set sooner than 200 years from now, is refreshing, again! And such a classy boss.

Admiral on the bridge!: TNG's Clyde 'Nakamura' Kusatsu

It's amazing the number of creative folks—chiefly actors, but also writers, producers, designers, and crew—who can call themselves part of the Trek family...or Treklanders, as we call them around these parts.

As every year passes, I try to make it a point to meet and hopefully interview many of them, especially the recurring guest stars whose faces are a tad more familiar. That said, I am still struck by how many of even they we have yet to see at some of the larger conventions—I'm lookin' at you, Creation Vegas!

...Such as Clyde Kusatsu, whose long career has included several stints as the first real "recurring admiral" on TNG, a spot in its finale, and a bit of distinction vis a vis none other than Jean-Luc Picard—as we discuss, amid tales from his other work of note, in this vidchat from a recent Courts Signing Show in Burbank.

I mean, he was a finalist for WHAT on Deep Space Nine? And in a sitcom pilot with Brent and WHO?

STV: Meet Star Trek's '60s-style poster artist, Juan Ortiz

This one has been in the can for a while, but hey—people still love Juan Ortiz' funky
60's-style Star Trek poster looks, and very few folks have got to meet this incredible artist who's started a mini-franchise all his own with these iconic, widely-diverse graphics: posters for all 80 original Trek episodes, and now the animated series, too, on everything from T-shirts to trading cards.

CBS helped collect them all into a "coffee table" style book, STAR TREK: The Art of Juan Ortiz —it still makes a great self-gift if you didn't get enough Trek in your stocking!—and during the 2013 holiday season sponsored a gala signing event for author and book, opening a gallery show of the posters at the West Coast venue of the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. The event was reported, but here's how it looked and sounded, along with Juan and his fans:

Single episode posters (and in the U.K. too) and spin-off goodies like shot glasses, and trading cards from Rittenhouse Archives, are available, too.

STV: Ensign Williams logs in from 'Red Shirt Diaries' !

Finally… on the last day of their Indiegogo…I finally get this posted. Good thing it's not as if they needed my help! 

Meet Ashley V. Robinson and Jason Inman, whose Red Shirt Diaries web series is the slyest, most inventive little take on what NCC-1701 lower-decks life for redshirts 'n' redskirts might have been like…and now an Internet cult hit, to boot. It's all in bite-sized, three-minute weekly "log entries" from Ensign Williams of security, her friends—and, yes, her famous superiors. Organized, of course, by historical records otherwise known as the first 10 outings of Star Trek—original series style.

Are YOU hooked yet? It's so simple—and yet more addicting than a cordrazine slush.
If you're a noob, give a look here on their YouTube channel at the 10 episodes up so far—the TOS classics in aired order, through "Corbomite Maneuver"…told of course, through the long-suffering yet surviving ensign's oddly eventful personal logs, right from her simple quarters on Deck 8.  

Want to see more? Today is the last day of their very modest campaign and they've met two stretch goals already—including a bonus show and location shooting! So, you can still help them out with their drive for RSD's "Season 2", which would get the enterprising duo (and more) through the remaining 16 episodes of TOS' Season 1…and maybe even to Vulcan and plak tow...

Give a listen and find out all the backstage secrets, the genesis, what lies ahead for as we present this first of a four-part visit with Ashley and Jason RIGHT ON THE SET (ie, their living room)—and even a surprise visit from Gertrude/Beauregard. 
 

STV: It's FarragutFest! Celebrate with two REAL and local crew of the Farragut & Enterprise

If it's the first weekend of December, it must be FARRAGUT FEST down in Kingsland, GA, home to the Farragut Studios that boasts the rebuild of Desilu's storied Stage 9...i.e., the original Star Trek sets of the 1960s whose amazing recreations are used here now for both the Starship Farragut and Star Trek Continues indie fan film series, of which I've come to be quite familiar.

If you are lucky enough to be in the region—I hope to go one year, but families already come from several states away to get to walk those hallowed corridors in these incredible lookalikes—I hope you tell Royal Weaver and Sam Rooks hi, if you meet them (video below the fold). Those two, and many more, are part of the local crew who build and maintain those stages year-round in-between times the rest of us are away.  In between the tours, panels and even vendors of FarragutFest, they are among the many who can tell you all the history and backstage detail you'd ever want to know.

And that's why I took time during the "Mirror" shoot for STC's "Fairest of Them All" last spring—our own chat cut short by the needs of the shoot, as you'll see—to get both of these guys on camera and get them their due. The photo (left) just happens to be them atop and steadying a ladder to be able to run the Tantalus Field cover during that filming.

Also during shoots, Sam spends a lot of time with lights, while Royal is everyone's number one door man—and I don't mean the taxi-hailing kind, I mean the sliding Starfleet kind. It's a special art, as anyone who's seen the original bloopers knows all too well!

So—in honor of another FarragutFest this weekend, here's my chat with the locals, to celebrate! If you can't be there, try for 2015—I know I will—and meanwhile check out the Farragut Films Facebook page where I'm sure there'll be pics a-plenty. Go "Like" their page—and of course, go "Like" the Star Trek Continues page as well— if somehow *gasp* you haven't already!

Kevin Dilmore shows Hallmark's new Trek ornaments —plus sneak peeks at the 2015s, AND his new book

Hey, it's that time of year again: Time to chat again with Trek novelist and Hallmark hangabout Kevin Dilmore...

Because it's THAT time of year again: Here's Hallmark's new Star Trek ornaments for 2014! And even 2015...

As usual, Kevin—my onetime Communicator magazine hire;ing—and I have way too much fun looking at all the new baubles and their subject matter, which find a way to get cooler and cooler each year. And what better backdrop than the raucous roar of Comic-Con #SDCC behind us?

What's more, hang on to the very end for a word about Kevin's latest Trek novel now out from Pocket Books with co-author Dayton Ward, whom I've caught at SDCC before as well. The new title is second in the Seekers series, Point of Divergence ... in stores now.

I'll give a prize if you can watch this and list off all 47 Star Trek riffs we took off on....!



BTW: Would you believe the gummy "RECORD" button on my HD cam? We actually did this entire bit once through before I realized it had not been captured—and thus our extra giddiness at diving back in for an even more brilliant chat.

Niners take note: New 'On Speaker' CD #3 is now out!

The Vegas Trek sneak-peek debut is over—and Volume 3 of "Trekland: On Speaker" is here for good!

As our buds at trekmovie.com have noted, this is the archival series that shares my long-stored, long-form audio interviews with Trek creators from back in the day—fresh from the work, and remastered from old analog cassette tape to digital files.

And as a bookend to last year's edition marking 20 years since the TNG finale, for 2014's debut at Vegas Khhaaann we are celebrating in like fashion the 15th anniversary of "What You Leave Behind," the two-hour final chapter of DS9.

For "What They Left Behind" you get an hour and 18 minutes of revealing conversations from back in 1999-2000 with writer-producer Ron D. Moore, visual FX producer Dan Curry and supervisor Gary Hutzel, and some 25 minutes with show runner Ira Steven Behr—with not a shallow sound bite in sight. Plus, as an actual CD in jewel case, you get my three-panel liner notes, photos and context, along with my brief audio intros to the album and each guest. 

I'll even sign it for you! 

On my website, you can get yours—or check out the two-fer special if you get the new issue and Vol. 2 as well: the  similar disc celebrating  "All Good Things…," TNG's glorious ending.  (At the moment, Vol. 1 —"Future Voices, Passed"—is not available in hard copy, but will soon be downloadable; stay tuned.)

Once again, hats off to buddy Chris Jones at trek.fm/Stellar Debris for both his graphics on the case liner design and for the audio remastering project (and for the nice shout-out on "The Ready Room" news). And kudos to QBT Media in Monrovia, all the CDs I now have in stock are professionally printed and pressed. Many thanks also to everyone at Vegas Khhaaan who snapped one up, including everyone on the LA2Vegas Trek Tour who took me up on my special just for them!

A debut eve two-fer: Fresh from stage, Todd Haberkorn reflects on Spock's "Lolani" mind-meld

Yes, this is a look back, but hey:

A chat with Todd Haberkorn is always a fun visit—even when it was shot back during the filming of Star Trek Continues' "Lolani" last fall—and portends what may be in store for Todd's process of Spockifying himself as the mirror universe-based "Fairest of Them All" debuts online at noon Eastern on June 15.

We filmed this just after he shot the pivotal mind-meld scene in Episode 2, and yes the makeup and the uniform undershirt are still in place, as Todd graciously delayed the end of his final day of shooting for a few minutes for our chat. You can also see makeup supervisor Tim Vittetoe prepping removal in the background.

I still have more vidchats and "B-roll" background video from both "Lolani" and the new "Ep3" mirror show to share; stay tuned as I unspool more. And don't forget to catch up on the  "Official Star Trek Continues" Facebook page for ongoing news and more STC BTS, as well...

What do think about Todd's, er, thoughts about the mind meld?

STV: Star Trek Continues' premiere week: Sneaky peeks!

Ready for even MORE new Trek?

In honor of the world premiere of Star Trek Continues  Friday at Phoenix Comicon with a gala screening, cast panel and signing—and yes, I hope many of you can join us—I put together this little pastiche of faces and moments from my own lenses during our January shoot for "Pilgrim of Eternity." It got its own world premiere as an exclusive clip I showed at BlasterCon in L.A. a couple weekends ago.

You can catch Grant Imahara from Mythbusters, Chris Doohan looking like another Doohan in red, fearless leader Vic Mignogna as Kirk and director, with Todd Haberkorn the Wonder Spock ... and a lot of the cast and crew, including me in McCoy togs and our Kim Stinger as Uhura bein' tough. I'll save some moments with Michael "Apollo" Forrest for a later time.

In fact, you can catch those three npow that we have premiered the thing! And if you crave EVEN MORE, bop over to the STC Facebook page, "Like" it, and scroll back through the last few weeks—there's been fun video and stills a-plenty.

For now, enjoy this teaser—literally!

STV: Kirk and Spock, on-set cut-ups: Star Trek Continues' Vic Mignogna and Todd Haberkorn

Let me introduce you to two of the best voice actors and most popular guests on the anime convention circuit—as well as a couple of all-around performers, directors and even editors: Vic Mignogna and Todd Haberkorn.

With all that, you're catching them at Trekland because Vic is the driving force—as producer, director, co-writer and Captain James T. Kirk—behind Star Trek Continues, which as you know by now this week is the latest "fan film" to debut that looks like anything but amateur. Todd, always at his side—well, sometimes—is holding on to the Spock ears and inflamed stoicism with great aplomb. (Vic was also crazy enough to ask me to step in at the 11th hour to play Dr. McCoy when the prior actor could not make the January shoot.)

With the world debut of "Pilgrim of Eternity" coming at Phoenix Comicon in big Room 120, this chat during the shoot is the third of four videos I'm premiering this week in the countdown to Friday night's huge screening and cast Q&A/signing event. Don't forget you can see more of the shorts at the STC website,  and more clips and stills at the Facebook page, too—which of course is easily Liked.

Till the premiere gets online ASAP after PHXCC for all to see ... Enjoy this third pre-premiere glimpse:



PLUS:  GRANT "MYTHBUSTERS" IMAHARA AS SULU—JUST CONFIRMED AS WELL!

STV: Preview Week Part 2: CHRIS Doohan provides the DNA as Scotty for 'Star Trek Continues'

Of all the fan films and all their cast members—celebrity or not—I doubt there is a case quite like what you see with one role in Star Trek Continues, where DNA trumps all.

Yes, the real-life actor behind one of those iconic Star Trek characters—the late, great Jimmy Doohan, our beloved "Scotty" of course —is being represented in the recast role by none other than his own son, Chris Doohan. Not an actor, Chris has slipped into the role, worked on his "Doohan Scotch" accent, and the result is absolutely amazing—as you can see in this test short filmed last summer.

As you can see in our meetup, Chris is pretty non-plussed by all this—which, as for all of us in the cast, was both a lot of hard work and just having a hoot of a shoot ...

Star Trek Continues has its world premiere at 6 p.m. this Friday, May 24 at Phoenix Comicon's main room—a screening, cast Q&A, and a mass signing! Look for it online as soon as possible via the STC website and the Facebook page.

STV: It's Grant 'Mythbusters' Imahara as Sulu! Must be premiere week for Star Trek Continues

Great news!

As if having Grant "Mythbusters" Imahara as our Sulu in the indie online series "Star Trek Continues" wasn't enough... as you can see in our vidchat below the fold ...

We just heard that Grant confirmed the Mythbusters shoot schedule will indeed let him join us for the episode's world premiere hoopla this Friday night at Phoenix Comicon. I was honored to have been asked to play McCoy in this series for the January shoot, but I also made sure to record several of our folk on camera for everyone in TREKLAND —and thus this little gem.

Here's Grant below ... in uniform and out ... for the episode wrangled and helmed by voice actor/director Vic Mignogna as Kirk, his colleague and popular voice actor Todd Haberkorn as Spock, Chris Doohan playing his dad's role as Scotty ... and original TOS "Apollo" Michael Forrest reprising his role ... in a very savvy way. Kim Stinger is Uhura and Wyatt Lenhart is Chekov, too, and Michele Specht plays Lt. McKenna, another new key character, along with Steve Dengler's Security Chief Drake.

There's a screening, panel and signing for the pilot "Pilgrim of Eternity," all starting Friday at 6 p.m. in the con's huge main room. The show will be online soon after, I'll be there all weekend... and I'll be rolling out more vidchats this week prior to the hoopla Friday. You could also check the website (with three short vignettes, from before my casting) and go LIKE the Facebook page, which has a ton more videos and behind-the-scenes photos. Caption contests, anyone?

Meanwhile, whaddya think about how well Grant channels his forebear? Yes, we go there, too:

Voyager/BSG's Michael Taylor talks SyFy's DEFIANCE debut tonight—Pt. 1

Writer-producer Michael Taylor, who I've known since the later Voyager days, sat down with me last summer for an EXCLUSIVE early chat about the unique and potentially historic TV/game crossover project called DEFIANCE—whose TV incarnation on SyFy debuts tonight at 9 ET/PT.

Here's just Part I of our chat—where we're just getting started on the idea... and how the heck a busy TV staff can interface enough with a game staff to make the revolutionary concept work. Coming in future TREKLAND segments: details on the development of the characters and setting—a future Earth where eco-damage from an aliens/human war on Earth has repaired by terraforming where they all must now work together.

Mike, of course, also wrote some great episodes on Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica and was involved with both Caprica and Blood and Chrome (as well as the late Michael Piller's breakout Dead Zone on USA). Later on, we'll reminisce about those years as well—and there's more below the video fold here, too:


Yes, there's more—like this FYI: In case any of you are out there grousing about getting invested in an expensive and risky genre series only to see it cancelled after one year—apparently, series exec producer Kevin Murphy is letting on that the series' second season is already into production. We'll try to update with Mike on that as well.

Meanwhile, in case you haven't seen it, here's the extended trailer for the TV series:



AND the first 14 minutes of Monday's pilot (sorry for the embedded ad)...

STV: Gap-filling Star Trek with David Goodman and "Federation: The First 150 Years," Pt. 2

I'm rushing this into print because I hope you late shoppers still needing a cool Trek gift might see this and still do something about it!

That, and I just want to get more of this interview out, after our Part 1—because David Goodman and I had such a hoot. My very first reaction to Star Trek*, after posters and model kits, was the urge to fill up those annoying background gaps when it seemed we might not get any more on film--but to do it in a smart and agreeable way.

And with our fallow period of new Trek now in the Prime 'verse, and a return to Star Trek non-fiction looking better than ever, finally, David was the first true background fan to get a big chance again. I'm STILL jealous—and it has nothing to do with his time writing on Enterprise, or Futurama, or the MacFarlane Empire like Family Guy and American Dad—or just selling a new animated series to FOX, Murder Police.

So just hit that play button, because while I may even get an interviewee to cry, I rarely get them to curse at me. And rip me off on camera!

And know too: There is a Part 3 coming—one last entry about Trek canon and his gap-filling choices—plus a Part 4: apart from "FEDERATION: 150," David's prognostications on Trek now and future and my reaction to them. Keep staying tuned ... and for starters, listen to David's answer to the Eugenics War Conundrum ... the Cloaking Dilemma ... and Trill vs. Vulcan Parallelism...





*And I don't mean in 2009 ...

STV—"Federation" canon gap-filling, with David Goodman

Trek Background lovers, take note! You finally get your place back in the sun.

Star Trek Cool Week continues—as does our erstwhile focus on the new FEDERATION: The First 150 Years non-fiction book, capped now as promised by Part 1 of an extended and EXCLUSIVE vidchat with author and onetime Enterprise writer-producer David Goodman.

Oddly, it's the American Dad offices where we caught up with David to talk about his little history baby, FEDERATION: The Cool Book, and this look in brief at the beloved (by some of us) art of Trek "gap filling" that has gone on since the 1980s—and seems to blossom especially in time of "fallow production" (ie, a movies-only era, as then and now).

Listen as we hit some of the issues that fervent Trek canonistas care about—and I can say that, being one!—that he had to tackle and make choices.

And remember, this is just Part 1 with David... there is SO much more to come... in Part II!